Darren is Director of the Australian Tropical Herbarium joint venture (JCU, CSIRO, Qld Govt). His research focuses on the origins, evolution and classification of plants and deals broadly with the questions: how many plant species exist, where do they occur, how are they related and how have they evolved? His skills and knowledge have recently been applied to understanding opportunities for developing novel or improved crops and medicines based on Australian native biodiversity, including Traditional Owner rights to their Indigenous Biocultural Knowledge through his fostering of the Tropical Indigenous Ethnobotany Centre based at the ATH. He is deeply connected with national and international plant biodiversity forums and initiatives through his roles on the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria (Chair); Australian Systematic Botany (Editor-in-Chief); Genomes for Australian Plants Framework Data Initiative (Steering Committee and Lead of Phylogenomics Project); International Flora Malesiana Foundation (Board), etc.